Roma and Cagli!

Today, I am enjoying my first few hours in Cagli. I got a little more adventure than I was bargaining for on Friday when I missed my scheduled flight to Rome, but made it in yesterday morning. I was fortunate enough to sleep for the majority of the plane ride, so I was able to spend the day touring Rome and meeting people. Yesterday we took a quick walk past the Spanish Steps and the Pantheon before meeting up with the rest of the group for lunch where I enjoyed my first Italian cappuccino. As we were leaving the restaurant, we heard some sirens down the block from the Giro d’Italia, which ended in Rome yesterday. I stopped to take some pictures and see a few riders go by. An excellent surprise! 

After lunch we stopped back at the Pantheon, so I was able to look at it more and go inside and take some pictures. We walked over to the famous Piazza Navona where they used to hold chariot races (I think?) and took some pictures of the church and the Fontana dei Quattro Fiori (Fountain of the Four Rivers...thanks Wikipedia). It was definitely the biggest piazza I had seen and really beautiful. The artists gathered around the fountain selling paintings reminded me a lot of Monmartre, but a pretty different atmosphere. We spent the remainder of the afternoon at The Vatican. We went inside St. Peter’s Basilica for about an hour before deciding to fork over the 5 euro to hike up to the cupola. Five hundred some-odd stairs later, we arrived at what were probably the best views of the city from anywhere. So worth it!
When we got back to the hostel we hung out for a little while, and by 12:30 I was in bed…exhausted after a looong day. We woke up early this morning to get on the bus to Cagli. It rained through our entire long and windy drive up until now. It doesn’t look like it plans on stopping any time soon and it’s supposed to rain tomorrow as well. The weather is supposedly looking a little better for Wednesday. When we arrived here, our temporary landlord, Daniela, took Cassidy and I to our apartment in her TINY Fiat. It was a feat to get the three of us crammed in there with all of our luggage. The apartment we were supposed to move-in won’t be ready for us until Thursday, I think, so we’re here in the meantime. We’re a little separated from the rest of the group, but the apartment is very cute. Second surprise adventure: we couldn’t get the key to our gate to work and could not for the life of us figure it out! We had to ask Daniella twice to help us (which was also interesting because neither Cassidy nor I speak Italian) and finally figured out that in Italy, you put keys in the lock with the teeth-side up. Should have been a no brainer! We got lunch at the Caffé d’Italia, where it became plainly obvious to us that everyone could tell we are the Americans. (Not that I’m saying it would be possible for us to blend in.) It’s been pretty interesting trying to communicate in general. With Daniella I could get by with a mix of Italian and French, but it’s hard to order food when you have no idea what you’re getting! I don't really like the just point game, so I ended up just picking a random word. The random word was still tasty! (Panini piccoli, if you're interested, which I have since learned means little panini.) We had our first Italian lesson today, which was fun and came fairly easily, but I think I’m going to get confused with French a lot. It’s also really hard to remember to flip my r’s instead of using French r’s. This morning I slipped and said “perfavore” with a French accent when ordering coffee at the hostel. It’s just hard to shake when they are so similar and that’s what you’re used to! Tonight we are going to one of the nicer restaurants in town for dinner and then to the infamous Seven’s for a welcoming party. Should be a good time before classes begin tomorrow. Ciao!